After class on Tuesday, I attended my philosophy class contemporary moral issues with Professor Werner. I have referenced him before in my blog posts because so much of what we discuss can be applied to the novels we have read. In class we examine everything from gay marriage, sexism and racism, to capital punishment. This class in particular the term double consciousness arose. I have never heard of it before; alike most moral beliefs we discuss. Double consciousness is most commonly experienced within an individual member of a minority amongst a greater population. This concept states that you know how to behave when you are around another culture, and adjust to their customs, their beliefs, accents, etc. But then goes on to say that while your amongst your own minority, you act naturally and differently than you would amongst a majority group. You don’t only act differently, but you think differently. Whether it is subconscious or you are aware of the way you are acting is debatable. Not only is this sense developed in settings where religion, race, or culture clash but it can be applied to situations such as school. For example, I speak differently to teachers in class then I do to my friends.
Double consciousness is important because I believe that it can be applied to The Man in the High Castle and seen throughout the novel. The difference between cultures seems to be a conflict addressed throughout the book thus far. I think that Robert Childan and Joe have experienced this double consciousness. Childan witnesses it at dinner with the Asian couple of Paul and Betty Kasouras. Although he may not have adjusted to their culture, he was respectful of it and aware that he did not belong from the minute he drove onto the street due to the nice cars, the clean-cut lawns, and the beautiful apartments. The gap between the two cultures was very noticeable as he was a white man amongst and Asian family meal. “He wondered if they too sensed the unbridgeable hap between themselves and him” (Dick, 115). Also, I believe Joe experiences this throughout his relationship with Juliana. It is obvious that he is Italian, but tries his best in public to blend in with society by hiding his accent, dressing the part, and keeping a lot of his stories secret to avoid the cultural barrier it would create. Racial and religious differences are prevalent in The Man in the High Castle, and this creates a moral sense of double consciousness within the characters.
I have never heard of a person having a “double consciousness” before, but it actually makes a lot of sense. In my other class, we recently read a couple chapters from President Barack Obama’s memoir, “Dreams from My Father”. In the book, he describes a situation of trying to adapt to the various cultures he experiences throughout life. Because he is racially half-black and half-white, he was always struggling to figure out how to act and think depending on what culture he was with at the time. I think he was struggling with his double consciousness, because society always defined him according to his skin color, when in reality, he fit into both categories of “black” and “white”. He could not figure out how to act with a certain group, because he did not know how to define himself yet. Too often, people let themselves be characterized by their race or cultures and do not feel comfortable expressing themselves as individuals. While double consciousness is probably a useful ability, we should be careful to ensure that people do not feel uncomfortable acting a certain way due to society’s pressures to fit into a group.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea that we have a double consciousness goes back to the whole premise of the novel. It is the idea and struggle between authenticity and fake. For whatever reason, we, as human beings, respond poorly when we find something to be fake or un-authentic. Along with that humans have the tendency to do what they can to avoid conflict in their lives. This also pertains to greeting someone and taking on "another personality". In order to avoid confrontation we sub-conciously do what we can in order to convey authenticity to those we are communicating with. Whether it is polite language with adults or a more vulgar dialect with our peers, we change our personality in order to avoid becoming "fake" in the eyes of our audience. When we seem "fake", it tends to make others uneasy.
ReplyDeleteI find it amazing that Philip Dick is able to use the conflict over authenticity into the interactions the characters have with other people. Its this ability to add this dimension into the text without the knowledge of the reader that further strengthens the idea that this is something that we see in everyday life.
Double consciousness was coined by DuBois (check out The Souls of Black Folk if you're curious. It's online, and I highly recommend it. It's good just to widen your understanding of racial tensions and conflicts, but it would be a great supplementary text to read for Kindred. http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/W_E_B_DuBois/The_Souls_of_Black_Folk/ If you just want to read about double consciousness, it's in "Of Our Spiritual Strivings").
ReplyDeleteIn The Souls of Black Folk, the effect of the double consciousness is compared to living under a veil---in that while there is a division drawn, you can still see past it and so, having a double consciousness means that you are simultaneously aware of your own existence (how you perceive yourself) and how others perceive you (seeing yourself through their eyes).
I feel that the issue is not so much juggling between fake and authentic, but instead, having an authentic self that society accepts. Being an ABC(American Born Chinese) with the experience of growing up in an enclave, I can very easily relate to the feeling of being divided, incomplete, and unaccepted by both Chinese and American society. For instance, in America, others will perceive me as CHINESE (and sometimes, as nothing more). In China and in Chinese communities, I get slapped with the label of AMERICAN or the more accurately the term, 美国土生华人 （mei guo tu sheng hua ren), literally, Chinese born in America. Yet, more often the slang word (Cantonese) is 竹升 (jook sing). The meaning of "Jook-sing" being "a grain-measuring container made of bamboo. Bamboo is hollow and compartmentalized, thus water poured in one end does not flow out of the other end. The metaphor is that "jook-sing"s are not part of either culture: water within the jook-sing does not flow and connect to either end." (Thank you, Wikipedia for making it concise.)
I can choose to be ignorant of either identities, but who would that make me? Nobody. Instead, I've made the choice to embrace both and to make the sense of misplacement a sense of pride. I'm not a "fake Chinese" (and I have been called that before by natives) or F.O.B (fresh off boat [immigrant] have been called that too), you are only given so much in life and you, as an individual, can make the most of what you have even if it means going against the tide and coming to terms that you are part of "neither/nor".